"We still think there is more to this story. Hopefully, maybe one day, we will find out. Maybe we won't, but the scenario that has played out doesn't sound like Nick," Nick Wilcox Sr. said Tuesday night.

Wilcox was last seen early New Year's morning after being escorted from the Irish Rec Room on Old World Third Street. The family said in the bar's surveillance video, Nick appeared coherent.

"He seemed to be alert, seemed to know what he was doing, broke up a fight. (An) officer told him to move on and he moved on," the elder Wilcox said.

The medical examiner ruled Wilcox's death an accidental drowning as it did the death of Tom Hecht after last spring's Shamrock Shuffle. The two deaths are the most recent in a long string of drinking-related Wisconsin drownings that have prompted speculation there is something more sinister at work.

"Think about all the stories you hear about young men falling in the river. Is it drunk or is it more to it?" Water Street patron Laura Fabian said.

Milwaukee police are waiting for toxicology results before closing the Wilcox investigation, but the chief said he believes the bigger issue in such deaths is binge drinking.

"There are two rivers nearby, and if you're extraordinarily inebriated and have been over-served, which is not uncommon, there's no margin for error and good chance no one will hear you," Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn said.